Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia

This book is about a confused maid that decides to play on a baseball because they are short one player. Everything they tell her to do she does wrong. For example, they told her to run home, she was going to head all the way home. They think they are going to lose, and they end up winning with her

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at bat, and bringing in all 3 men on base including herself.

I remember reading this book and enjoy Amelia Bedelia. I think that the students will find her funny, and enjoyable.

I think that one activity they could perform would be to write down phrases they know about baseball and then dicuss them in class. Another idea for an activity would have the students write out how they would describe the game of baseball to Amelia.

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Realistic Fiction is beautifully displayed in this humor filled story line. The story is easily plausible because sometimes kids really do take things way too literally. This book displays excellent setting in a neighborhood that could be anywhere in America. it makes it really a whole lot easier

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for readers to relate to the storyline. By showing typical familiar neighborhoods, it makes the setting more believable.

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Genre: Realistic Fiction
Critique of Genre: This is an adorable example of realistic fiction because it has this lady who takes everything literally when she is given directions such as when she is told to "run home" during a baseball game she literally "runs home" or when she is told to "tag" a

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runner she runs to him and pins a price tag on him. She keeps you entertained from the first page to the last.
Media:pen and ink/colored pencil

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Amelia is at it again confusing the meanings of words, this time on the baseball field with a team full of players.

This book is about a girl named Amelia Bedelia. The Grizzlies team was sad because they need another team player for the game tomorrow. Amelia Bedelia agreed to help, yet she didn’t know much about the game. The team taught Amelia to bat. Amelia went home and found a uniform also she baked

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cookies. The next day the game started. Amelia took everything literally, like when they said to tag the other teammate. Amelia put tag sign on him. The team’s only hope in wining was Amelia’s next swing. Amelia Bedelia swing and run all the way home literally. The team won and went to Amelia’s house to thank her. She gave them all cookies.


I love baseball; therefore I enjoyed the book. A reason it could be considered contemporary realistic fiction is it could have happen. Amelia Bedelia is a funny character. I enjoyed reading her books as a child. She gets everything mixed up, which I like. I too get things mixed up.

In the class room, I could discuss how Amelia Bedelia takes everything literally and gets things confused. This book would be great in the spring when kids are playing ball. We could talk about professional baseball players. Older grades could look up historic players.

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Amelia Bedelia, who knows very little about baseball, stands in for a sick player during a game.

A classic Amelia Bedelia book, this one tells the story of Amelia and baseball. Of course, Amelia takes everything literally and it often result in disasters. However, she can always make us laugh. A baseball team has a player missing so Amelia offers to fill in for him. She does hilarious things

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such as putting a tag on a boy instead of "tagging him".

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Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia

Amelia Bedelia is walking by the baseball field when she sees all the grim faces of the players. Naturally, she asks them what is wrong and they explain that they are playing today but one of the players was sick and they didn’t have anyone to replace him. They ask her to

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be the extra player and she agrees even though she knows little about the game. She heads home to find a uniform before the big game. While she is there she stops to bake cookies for the empty cookie jar, then heads back to the field. Once the game starts the boys realize all the commotion that Amelia Bedelia is stirring up. She tries to place a clothing tag on a player when they tell her to tag him and she also takes all the bases with her when she runs around the field because she had learned it was okay to steal bases. One team is down in the final inning and Amelia Bedelia is up to bat. She hits it so hard that she can run around all the bases picking each one up on her way. The team is yelling for her to run home so she can get a point. So she picks up home plate and does just that, runs all the way home. Amelia Bedelias score caused them the win the game. Soon the players showed up at her house to retrieve their bases back from Amelia Bedelia.

This is a cute book for children that are just getting into that sports stage. I think it is good for boys to learn that girls can play all the sports a boy can and I think it is good for the girls to realize the same thing.

Extended ideas:
We can make our own baseball field in the classroom, but make it to where each base represents a different subject and the student has to answer the question correctly to advance to the next base.

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This book was about Amelia Bedelia joining a baseball team. She had to learn how to play the game and didn't understand the rules of the game clearly. However, the kids on the team were accepting and patient as they explained the rules to her. The book is great for helping children understand that

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everything that is said is not meant in a literal way. The language used in the book is easy for children at this age to understand and the print is a larger size which also makes it easier for children to read.

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I enjoyed this book for several reasons. The language was clear and sounded appealing to the ear. The majority of the story is written through dialogue. I enjoy when books contain dialogue because it is easy to comprehend, creates for an interesting story, and the spacing of dialogue does not

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strain your eyes. I felt the writing flowed and was paced well. The book is printed in large font, which is helpful for young children learning how to read and understand text. This book is a quick read due to the large print and limited amount of words on each page. I love the character of Amelia Bedelia. She is a friendly girl who wants to help her friends win the baseball game, yet she takes every direction too literally. It is humorous to read about the things she does when given instructions, because she translates these instructions into literal terms. For example, when a baseball player went to steal second base, “Amelia Bedelia ran and picked up second base. It’s all right now, fellows, she called. Second base is safe.” The illustrations are wonderful and enhance the story. The style fits the written text and is appropriate for the mood of the story because it includes animated drawings of the children playing baseball. This is simply a fun story that children would enjoy reading for their amusement. There is no particular big idea or message, except maybe to help friends when they need it.

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I have loved the Amelia Bedelia books since I was a kid. I liked these books for many reason but mainly for the adversity Amelia goes through and defeats. In this book the author does a great job with the language of each character. The Grizzlies aren’t doing well and Amelia just wants to help

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and they notice that. The boy’s continue to help her out and its easy to see. The writing is repetive as they tell Amelia to either, throw a kid out, our steal second. She takes everything literally and that’s the comical part of the writing. Its funny if you know what the teammates mean by saying “pop fly” and Amelia replying “I didn’t hear any pop”. The illustrations fit right with this book. Amelia would go actually “steal” a base when all she was supposed to do was run to. So the illustrator would have her running to second and picking up the bad. Amelia even though not doing well is positive throughout. The only character development the author worries about is Amelia. Amelia was able to help the Grizzlies win even after not doing well in the beginning. The plot is developed beautifully and I loved the way the author used a reoccurring problem and allowed Amelia to learn from it. The big idea was for children to see to never give up, no matter what.

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These are some of my all time favorite books! Children, and adults, love how silly these books are.

This story was about a boy’s baseball team who needed an extra player to play a game against a rival team, and Amelia Bedelia came to the rescue as their substitute player. They tried to explain how the game of baseball worked but she just did not quite understand it. The big idea of this story

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is acceptance. The boys on the team accepted Amelia Bedelia as their teammate, despite how she did not know how to play baseball. They were still nice to her and did not get upset of angry when she did something wrong, they just continued trying to help. I liked this book for two reasons. The first reason I liked this book was because of Amelia Bedelia’s character. She was a funny girl. She was a very literal person and thought of things in a non-figurative sense. For example, one of the teammates told her during the game to “Tag Jack before he gets to second base.” Amelia Bedelia literally put a tag on Jack saying “I must have a tag in here [her purse] somewhere”, then she put the tag on him. The second reason I liked this book was because of the illustrations. The illustrator did a good job showing the character’s emotions on their faces. For example, when Amelia Bedelia showed up to play, all the boys looked happy she was there. Then on one page, where they were trying to show her how to bat, it showed more of confused faces, because she was not very good.

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Amelia Bedillia's literal sense of everything get her in trouble while learning to play baseball.